Dragonwitch Quotes

“One conversation! One simple, honest, true conversation, and all your questions would be answered, all your problems solved! Really, man, is it that difficult? Then you'd be free to fall into each other's arms and live your Happily Ever After. Why make it so complicated?"
--Eanrin”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Dragonwitch

“I can't believe in the impossible," he whispered as though trying to convince himself against what he had just witnessed. "A man can't be big and small at once. He can't be a freak and a hero."
The cat glared. "Do you believe in justice?"
The Chronicler hesitated. Then, only once, he nodded.
"Do you believe in mercy?" pressed the cat.
"Yes."
"Ha!" Eanrin lashed his tail again. "What an impossible contradiction. Ha!”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Dragonwitch

“In my anger, I slew you twice. I saw you only as the dragon, and I forgot what you were meant to be. Can you forgive me?"
--Etanun”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Dragonwitch

“Alistair spoke behind his visor. "You look very pretty."
Mouse looked to Eanrin. "He sounds concerned. What did he say?"
"He said they're never going to believe you're a girl.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Dragonwitch

“Do you understand, mortal?" Eanrin said. "We Faerie know it's the spirit that counts, and all else is malleable. Beauty or ugliness; brawn or frailty; height or lack thereof--these appearances can be exchanged with scarcely a thought! But the truth...now, that's another issue. The truth of the thing, the person behind what you perceive with any of your paltry five senses...Creature of dust, it's the truth that counts! And you'll rarely find more truth than in Faerie tales."
With those words, the golden man dwindled into the golden cat, and try as he might, the Chronicler could perceive him as nothing else. But he was still Eanrin, and he smiled, pleased with himself.
"That wasn't a half-bad monologue. Do you find yourself inspired to new heights of ambition?”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Dragonwitch

“Tell me, cat-man, why can I understand her?"
"First," said Eanrin with a glower, "you will not call me 'cat-man' again. I am a knight, a poet, and a gentleman, and you will address me as sir or not address me at all.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Dragonwitch

“Think something; think something on your own. Not what 'they' tell you to think or what 'I' tell you to think. You are Leta of Aiven. I want to hear 'your' thoughts, for they are neither mine nor anyone else's. Only yours. This makes them interesting.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Dragonwitch

“A dream," he whispered. "It's all a dream."
"How metaphysical of you," said the cat. "But we're neither of us impressed.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Dragonwitch

“What's a Corgar?"
"A goblin."
"As in slavering jaws, gaping eyes, stone hides?"
"The same."
"They don't exist."
"Neither do talking cats.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Dragonwitch

“I wonder,” he said after a long silence, “what will happen if I open my eyes?” The Prince of the Farthest Shore, sitting beside him, answered, “You’ll see things as they are.” Alistair shuddered. Since that moment of red mouth and black teeth and pain like ripping fire, he wasn’t convinced he wanted to see things as they were. “Maybe,” he said, “I’d rather sit here in the dark.” “No, you wouldn’t,” said the Prince, and there was a smile in his voice.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Dragonwitch

“You do realize, don't you, that she's a girl?" he said.
"Of course I do." Alistair glared. "Do I look stupid?"
"Would you like me to answer that?”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Dragonwitch

“She felt herself caught up in the greatness of a story far too big for her mortal understanding, caught up and carried in a rolling current. But she was unafraid. For the first time, she believed she was truly alive.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Dragonwitch

“It is the hardest thing in the world to let go of a dead dream," Eanrin said, his voice more serious than Alistair had ever before heard it. "Many people cling to their dreams and watch them die again and again rather than release them entirely.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Dragonwitch

“Eanrin folded his arms and rolled his eyes ceilingward. "Of course. Prophetic destinies can't be played out without the proper sense of poetry. Even the girl must be here at the end! Though, Lights Above, I don't know how she managed it. I don't think I could have fixed it that way even in verse!”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Dragonwitch

“[T]hough she clung to the cold stones of the chimney, Leta whispered, "We are never obliged to be only what they have told us we are. Not if we were meant to be more.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Dragonwitch

“You had no right to do that, you pale-faced dog of a bullying man!"
Eanrin, leaning with his shoulder against the rock of the cave opening, called down into the dark, "She says your kisses are like drops of summer rain on a parched and thirsty land.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Dragonwitch

“I was born an accident," the Chronicler said.
"You were born for a purpose," the stranger replied, "and in the best form to fulfill that purpose.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Dragonwitch

“Love is a terrible thing," Mouse whispered.
"Only love gone astray," said the prisoner. "Only imperfect love."
Mouse tried once more, feebly, to shake off the prisoner's grip. "You frighten me."
"Oh, child!" said the prisoner. "The time has come you should be frightened. If fear will awaken you, be afraid! And then be courageous in your fear and act!"
"There's nothing I can do."
"You aren't the mouse they have made you be. You were meant for so much more!”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Dragonwitch

“You're a hundred years old?" Mouse whispered in awe, her voice carrying up the stone passage,
"Oh no," said the cat with a chuckle. "Much older!"
"What's funny?" asked Alistair, bringing up the rear and feeling rather ill used. "What did she say?"
"She says your breathing is so loud, you might as well blow trumpets to herald our coming," said Eanrin. "So duck your head and keep your mouth shut, eh?”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Dragonwitch

“Oh!" This was as far as her vocabulary would take her on short notice.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Dragonwitch

“You’re right,” sighed Alistair. “I wouldn’t. I would like to know. But I’m scared of what I’ll see.” “If you open your eyes, Alistair Calix-son, you will see me.” So Alistair turned to that voice. After a struggle, he discovered his own face, felt his own eyelids pressing down, shielding his vision. That moment took more courage than any other in his life so far, more than the climb into goblin-infested Gaheris, more than stepping into the Netherworld, more even than throwing himself at the slavering Black Dog. For once the deed was done, he knew there could be no going back. But then, really, when all was lost, what had he to fear? Alistair opened his eyes. And he saw the Lumil Eliasul.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Dragonwitch